HOUSTON – Two of the 22 women who filed lawsuits against Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson on sexual assault and misconduct were made public at a news conference Tuesday.
Ashley Solis, whom lawyer Tony Buzbee said was the first massage therapist to sue Watson, spoke at the news conference. Lauren Baxley wrote a letter to Watson that was read by lawyer Cornelia Brandfield-Harvey.
“I went into massage therapy to heal people,” Solis said. “To heal their minds and bodies. To bring them peace in their souls. Deshaun Watson kidnapped this from me. He took it from me, he soiled a profession in which I am very proud … I suffer from panic attacks, “Anxiety and depression. I am counseled as a result of Deshaun Watson’s actions. I hope he knows how much pain he has caused me emotionally and physically. And I hope he knows how much pain he has suffered for these other survivors.”
“People say they only do it for money,” Solis said. “That’s false. I’m introducing myself now so Deshaun Watson won’t attack another woman.”
In her letter to Watson, Baxley wrote, “Every frontier from professional and therapeutic to sexual and degrading you have crossed or tried to cross.”
Baxley said she wrote the letter on her trauma therapist’s recommendation to “forgive me for not speaking earlier” and also “so that you can know without apology or justification that you have brought me deep and irreversible horror.” terror to me and to others ”.
“I originally came to show solidarity with other women, but since then I’ve realized that I deserve justice,” Baxley wrote. “I hope that the court will bring that justice and that you are stripped of both your power and your ability to hurt more women.”
Buzbee told a news conference that Solis and at least one of his clients had testified with police.
On Friday, the Houston Police Department said in a statement that it had launched an investigation into Watson after a plaintiff filed a report.
“As with any indictment, the Houston Police Department is now conducting an investigation and will no longer comment during the investigation process,” the department said in a statement. He did not specify why Watson is accused in the complaint.
Watson’s lawyer, Rusty Hardin, said in a statement Friday that he and Watson would “fully cooperate with the Houston Police Department.”
“We welcome this long-awaited development,” Hardin said. “We will now find out the identity of at least one accuser. We will cooperate fully with the Houston Police Department.”
In a Monday letter to Texan season ticket holders that is sent regularly in the spring, the McNair family filed a civil lawsuit and a complaint with the Houston Police Department against Watson, saying, “We want to make sure we take these very serious accusations.
“While we await the conclusion of these investigations, we express our strong position against any form of sexual assault,” the letter reads. “Our family and the entire Houston Texans organization are deeply troubled by any form of abuse, and we condemn this type of behavior.”